group ride categories (a, b, c)
 

Is there a consistent or official definition for what an "A ride", "B ride", etc, is?

I have an excellent sense of the difference between the A ride and the B ride in my local groups, because I know many of the riders, but I have no idea how the local A ride would compare to the A ride somewhere else.

I think it varies by area.

Around here, a C ride will be in the 10-15 mph range. B ride is in the 15-18 mph range and A is in the 18-21 mph range.

Groups in your area may be different.

The A Group is the fastest on a particular ride, B Group is next, and C Group brings up the rear.

Region is irrelevant. Actual speed depends completely on the riders and the group mentality.

A training level ride, country roads, peleton, A Group might be 21-22mph avg. An intown social group ride, A Group is like 16-18mph avg.

There's no uniform definition or consistency. It depends on the group. Here, one of the local club's "B" ride is too fast for many of the "A" riders from another local club.

It totally depends on the club.

For example, I suspect that a "recreational" club's A ride is probably more like a racing club's B or even C ride.

So read the fine print.

And then some groups flip the order so that it's the C group which is fastest and then A the slowest.

Here is a link to my club's website regarding ride categories, in case you are interested. I generally ride A-.

http://www.westchestercycling.com/?id=40

for my club, the A group is generally the fast, drop ride while B group is a fast, no-drop. C group is for the recreational riders and newbies who got into cycling last week.

I don't think we even have a C level ride in my area, but most of the B level rides never exceed 20 mph and average around 17 mph. We have some A level rides that average 19.5 mph and hit 26 mph for some long segments, and some A level rides that average 22 mph and regularly hit 30+ mph on the flats. Then, there's this ride down on the beach where guys show up an hour early and warm up on their trainers before the ride starts. I hear they leave the parking lot at 28 mph and it gets crazy from there. I guess that would be an A++ ride.

Here's my local rides with category speeds listed. I've been on a couple of A rides that have moved faster than advertised, but the B rides are a bit slow for me.

http://ocsj.org/bicycling/bikeschedule.html